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‘A Room for Animal Intelligence’: There’s never been a SAM exhibition like it

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) has unveiled "A Room for Animal Intelligence," a landmark exhibition curated by Pam McClusky that draws almost exclusively from the institution's permanent collection. The show features a diverse array of works—some of which had never been previously unboxed or displayed—ranging from ancient artifacts to contemporary sculptures. A unique narrative device is employed throughout the gallery, where the animal subjects "speak" for themselves on wall labels to foster a direct connection with visitors.

In Pictures: sculpture gets a leg up at Frieze Los Angeles

Frieze Los Angeles 2025 is showcasing a diverse array of sculptural works that emphasize tactile materials and bodily forms. Highlights from the fair include Vincent Pocsik’s architectural mirrors at Nazarian Curcio, Shana Hoehn’s public installation featuring human limbs emerging from a fallen tree, and Alejandro García Contreras’s intricate ceramic spiderwebs. The presentation underscores a trend toward figurative sculpture that blends personal symbolism with physical presence, with several works already finding buyers among notable collectors.

On View Now at MAG: New Picasso Exhibition

The Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) in Rochester has launched a series of new installations, headlined by the exhibition "Picasso and the Progressive Proof: Linocuts from a Private Collection." This show provides an intimate look at Pablo Picasso’s late-career printmaking innovations, specifically focusing on the evolution of three major linocuts through their various proofs. Additionally, the museum has debuted Rashid Johnson’s 2019 film "The Hikers" and several new contemporary acquisitions, including works by Donald Moffett and Hugo McCloud, while its major Impressionism survey enters its final days.

UK exhibition celebrates the artisans throughout history who went to war

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is launching "War Craft," an exhibition dedicated to art and objects created by non-professional soldiers on or near the front lines. Curated by Richard Kelleher, the show features a diverse array of items ranging from First World War shell cases engraved by the Chinese Labour Corps to a contemporary Ukrainian ammunition tin decorated with Sharpie drawings. The collection includes scavenged battlefield materials transformed into personal mementos, alongside significant works by established artists like J.M.W. Turner, John Singer Sargent, and C.R.W. Nevinson.

New biography offers well-crafted story of Louise Bourgeois’s rich life

Marie-Laure Bernadac’s new biography, 'Knife-Woman: The Life of Louise Bourgeois', provides a comprehensive look at the French-American artist’s prolific career and traumatic upbringing. The book explores how Bourgeois transformed childhood wounds—specifically her father’s infidelity and psychological cruelty—into a radical body of work spanning sculpture, installation, and textiles. From her early encouragement by Fernand Léger to her late-career fame with the 'Maman' spider sculptures, the biography traces her evolution from a painter to a boundary-defying sculptor who utilized materials ranging from latex to marble.

University of Richmond Museums kicks off a new season with immersive exhibitions and films

The University of Richmond Museums has launched a new season with three exhibitions at the Harnett Museum of Art. The centerpiece is 'Politics of Place,' a rotating film program curated by professor Jeremy Drummond, featuring works by nine contemporary filmmakers and two collectives exploring identity and power through geography. Other shows include a newly commissioned installation by sculptor Abigail DeVille examining Black mental health care, and 'Black Work: Absence/Absorption,' a group exhibition investigating the material and conceptual nature of the color black.

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers

The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation has announced an exhibition titled "Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers." The show will feature the work of contemporary artist Rashid Johnson, known for his multidisciplinary practice encompassing sculpture, painting, photography, and installation.

National Museum of Asian Art Explores the Power of Water in New Exhibition Featuring Hiroshi Senju and Bingyi

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art will present “Into the Waters with Senju and Bingyi: Two Contemporary Paintings,” a new exhibition opening April 2 and running through Aug. 23. It features two recent paintings by Hiroshi Senju (born 1958) and Bingyi (born 1975), each offering hypnotic visualizations of water. Senju’s pair of folding screens reimagines waterfalls using traditional Japanese techniques and contemporary methods, while Bingyi’s hanging scrolls, created with cloth and paper wrapped around an uprooted tree, incorporate natural elements like sea breeze and humidity. The exhibition marks the first showing of these works, which were acquired to expand the museum’s contemporary collections.

Eighty Years of Women Artists Transforming Abstraction

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., will host "Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection" from February 27 to July 26, 2026. The exhibition features 80 works by 69 women artists, including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Cecily Brown, Julie Mehretu, and Kara Walker, spanning 1946 to 2024. Curated by Cecilia Alemani, the show is drawn from the collection of Komal Shah and Gaurav Garg and organized by the Making Their Mark Foundation. It is structured around seven thematic sections such as "Craft is Art" and "Disobedient Bodies," highlighting the role of women in abstract art.

Five forces that reshaped the art market in 2025

In 2025, the art market faced significant challenges, including gallery closures and unfavorable auction results in the first three quarters, driven by geopolitical pressures such as US President Donald Trump's tariffs. However, a rebound occurred in autumn, with buoyant fairs like Frieze London and Art Basel Paris, and strong November auctions in New York totaling over USD 2 billion, carrying momentum to Art Basel Miami Beach. Key events included Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* selling for USD 236.4 million at Sotheby's, a record for a Modern work, and a Frida Kahlo self-portrait setting a new record for a work by a woman. Meanwhile, several galleries closed, including Blum, Venus Over Manhattan, Clearing, Kasmin Gallery, Tilton Gallery, and Perrotin and Pace's Hong Kong outposts, while others expanded, such as Thaddaeus Ropac in Milan and Hauser & Wirth in Sicily.

Theaster Gates redeems discarded materials in Smart Museum’s ‘Unto Thee’

Theaster Gates's first solo exhibition in his hometown of Chicago, 'Unto Thee,' opens at the Smart Museum of Art, featuring materials collected over his career that are tied to the University of Chicago. The show includes slate from Rockefeller Chapel, glass lantern slides from the art history department, and the 4,500-volume archive of a late colleague, all transformed into sculptural installations that explore the changing meaning of objects.

Frida Kahlo self-portrait sells for $54.7m at Sotheby's, breaking her auction record

Sotheby's held three back-to-back evening sales in New York on November 20, achieving a combined total of $252.9 million ($304.5 million with fees). The highlight was Frida Kahlo's self-portrait *El sueño (La cama)* (1940), which sold for $54.6 million with fees, setting a new auction record for the artist, for a Latin American artist, and for a female artist. The sales included 13 lots from the estate of Cindy and Jay Pritzker, a group of Surrealist works from an unnamed collection, and a multiple-owner Modern art sale featuring collections from the Bucksbaum family and Geri Brawerman.

An Exhibition in Dallas Challenges the Traditional Notions of Jewelry

The Dallas Museum of Art has opened "Constellations: Contemporary Jewelry at the Dallas Museum of Art," its largest-ever exhibition of contemporary jewelry, featuring over 350 pieces by 233 artists spanning eight decades. Curated by Sarah Schleuning, the show emphasizes conceptual ideas over material value, with works made from unconventional materials like found objects, zinc, steel, and fair-trade gold. Highlights include pieces by Iris van Herpen, Andrea Branzi, Harry Bertoia, Ute Decker, Art Smith, and merry renk, displayed in a design by artist and architect Jarrod Beck. A 456-page catalog accompanies the exhibition, which runs through May 3, 2026.

Catch of the day: Winslow Homer’s delicate watercolours get very rare outing in Boston

The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston is presenting "Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolour," a rare exhibition of the American painter's delicate watercolors, running from November 2, 2025, to January 19, 2026. The show brings together a rich selection of Homer's work, including childhood drawings, his final unfinished painting, and dozens of watercolors that are seldom exhibited due to their fragility and light sensitivity. Highlights include "Leaping Trout" (1889), the first Homer watercolor acquired by any museum, and works that depict the rugged New England coast and English seaside. The MFA, an early supporter of Homer's career, holds one of the largest collections of his work, and this is the first time many of these watercolors have been shown together in nearly 50 years.

Weisman Art Museum shows rugs as the messengers of our stories

The Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis is hosting "RugLife," a touring exhibition that transforms rugs into platforms for storytelling, history, and social commentary. Curated by Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox, the show features works by artists including Sonya Clark, Andrea Zittel, Nevin Aladağ, Ai Weiwei, and Ali Cha'aban, who use rug-making to address themes such as Black barber culture, climate change, political tensions, and the war in Ukraine. The exhibition originated at San Francisco's Museum of Craft and Design in 2023.

Exhibition spotlights civic engagement of artists

The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University has opened a new iteration of its Archive Rooms series, featuring two concurrent exhibitions: "Archive Room: Ester Hernandez" and "Archive Room: Ruth Asawa." The Hernandez exhibition showcases seldom-exhibited artwork, ephemera, writing, and family photographs from the artist's archive, including her iconic print "Sun Mad" (1982) addressing pesticide contamination, alongside materials documenting her community-based practice and activism. The Asawa exhibition highlights her arts advocacy through teaching materials, photographs, and projects from the Alvarado School Arts Workshop, an artist-in-residence program she co-founded in 1968 that operated in 50 San Francisco public schools.

From Dior's golden coat to landscape jewellery at Christie's: where the worlds of art and luxury collide this autumn

The article highlights two luxury-art crossovers this autumn: Jonathan Anderson's debut Dior menswear collection for spring/summer 2026, presented in Paris, and Natasha Wightman's new jewellery collection displayed at Christie's London. Anderson's show reimagined Dior's iconic women's silhouettes for men, featuring a standout €200,000 coat embroidered with ancient Indian mukesh work that took 12 artisans 34 days to create. Wightman's jewellery incorporates bog oak, a semi-fossilised wood from British fens, carved into pendants celebrating the country's remaining temperate rainforests.

Exhibition Opening: Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art

The Ford Foundation Gallery in New York will host 'Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art,' curated by Dr. Jareh Das, from September 10 to December 6, 2025. The exhibition brings together over fifty works by three generations of Black women artists, including Simone Leigh, Magdalene Odundo, and Ladi Kwali, spanning ceramics, film, photography, and archives, and traces the influence of Nigerian potter Ladi Dosei Kwali on contemporary practice.

On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival

The Art Institute of Chicago presents 'On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival,' an exhibition running from September 6, 2025, to March 15, 2026. Featuring over 100 objects from antiquity to the present, the show draws primarily from the museum's own collection and is organized into four thematic sections: Death and Mourning, Transition of Realms, Care and Repair, and Resistance and Survival. Works include funeral hangings, burial cloths, mourning samplers, Indonesian ship cloths, a Taoist priest's robe, and contemporary pieces by artists such as Nick Cave, Carina Yepez, the Noqanchis collective, and Diné weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas. The exhibition is curated by four artist-educators from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Fiber and Material Studies department: Isaac Facio, Nneka Kai, L Vinebaum, and Anne Wilson, with senior museum advisor Melinda Watt.

See Ai Weiwei’s Largest-Ever U.S. Exhibition in Seattle Before It’s Gone

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) has opened 'Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei,' the largest-ever U.S. exhibition of the Chinese-born artist-activist, featuring 130 works from the 1980s to the 2020s. Organized in three thematic sections—'Introducing the Rebel,' 'Material Disruptions,' and 'Watching Ai Watching Power'—the retrospective includes performance, photography, sculpture, and installations. Additionally, Ai Weiwei's 'Water Lilies' (2022), a Lego-based work referencing Monet, is on view at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. The exhibition runs through September 7, 2025.

McNay Art Museum to unveil exhibit that 'blurs the line between fiction and reality'

The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio will open "Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting Nature" on September 11, 2025, running through February 2026. The exhibition features an unconventional mix of sculptures, photographs, and installations by artist Sandy Skoglund, including never-before-exhibited works and large-scale photographic enlargements. Known for her meticulous tableaux using handmade objects, found materials, and live models, Skoglund explores the tension between human-made environments and the natural world.

Preston Park Museum's new exhibition space to open with host of exciting exhibitions celebrating the railway

Preston Park Museum is opening a new multi-million pound exhibition space in 2025 with a series of railway-themed exhibitions called 'Tracks of Change', part of the S&DR200 festival celebrating the bicentenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Highlights include 'Corridors', a suspended floral installation by internationally acclaimed artist Rebecca Louise Law; 'All Aboard', an interactive playscape for children; 'Gateway to the World', a collection of nationally significant paintings; and 'Perfume', a light-and-sound installation by visual artist Yann Nguema. All exhibitions will be free with museum admission.

William Kentridge Wants to Starve the Algorithm

William Kentridge, the South African artist known for his multidisciplinary practice, has created a new film series titled "Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot" (2020–2024), comprising nine half-hour segments. The work, which features his signature blend of drawing, animation, performance, and music, is currently on view at Hauser & Wirth's 22nd Street gallery in New York under the exhibition "A Natural History of the Studio." The article explores Kentridge's improvisational process, where he starts without a plan and lets gestures and materials guide him, often interviewing himself in the film to dramatize the artist's dual nature and the act of creation.

In ‘A Natural History of the Studio,’ Many William Kentridges Add Up to One

William Kentridge's latest exhibition, 'A Natural History of the Studio,' at Hauser & Wirth in New York presents over 70 drawings from his nine-part film series 'Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot,' alongside new sculptures. The works, created during the pandemic, explore self-portraiture through charcoal, pastel, and collage, often featuring doppelgängers that argue and disagree, reflecting the artist's engagement with theater and the materiality of his forms.

The Met to Present Focused Exhibition of George Morrison Works from the Artist’s Early Years in New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present "The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York," a focused exhibition of works by George Morrison (1919–2000), a Native American artist from the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Running from July 17, 2025, to May 31, 2026, at The Met Fifth Avenue, the show highlights Morrison’s early years in New York City, where he became a key figure in the American Abstract Expressionist movement. It features paintings, drawings, and archival materials from his time at the Art Students League and his interactions with peers like Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline, tracing his evolution from figurative work to abstract automatism infused with Ojibwe aesthetics.

A natural history of the studio

William Kentridge presents his first exhibition with Hauser & Wirth in New York, titled "A natural history of the studio." The show features his acclaimed episodic film series "Self-portrait as a coffee-pot" (completed in 2024) alongside over seventy works on paper and sculptures. Spanning two floors at 542 West 22nd Street and extending to the gallery's 18th Street location, the exhibition includes charcoal drawings used in the film's animation, Paper procession sculptures, and the animated video "Fugitive words" (2024). The installation, designed by longtime collaborator Sabine Theunissen, evokes Kentridge's Johannesburg studio environment.

Souto’s work featured in Joslyn’s ‘Made in the Plains’ exhibition

Francisco Souto, a professor of art and director of the School of Art, Art History and Design at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, is one of 20 artists featured in the exhibition "Made in the Plains" at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, running from June 7 to September 21, 2025. The show highlights new and recent work by artists living in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota, showcasing diverse materials and approaches. Souto is debuting a new polyptych, "8 Million Broken Dreams," consisting of eight circular panels with stone arrangements that reference the over eight million people who have left Venezuela, incorporating visual elements inspired by Carlos Cruz-Diez's mosaic floors at Simón Bolívar International Airport.

Steamy scenes in urban underworlds were Edward Burra’s great subject—now they're coming to Tate Britain

Tate Britain is staging a major retrospective of Edward Burra (1905-76), the English painter known for his vivid depictions of urban underworlds, jazz clubs, and later brooding landscapes. The exhibition, curated by Thomas Kennedy, features over 80 paintings and newly discovered archival material spanning Burra's career from the 1920s to the 1970s, including rarities like 'Cornish Clay Mines' (1970) from a private collection. It also draws on Burra's extensive correspondence—described by his biographer Jane Stevenson as 'grubby letters'—which offers unprecedented insight into his personal world and chronic pain from rheumatoid arthritis and anemia.

In The Mastermind, an art heist’s aftermath unfolds against the backdrop of Vietnam War-era America

Kelly Reichardt's new film *The Mastermind* premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, following J.B. Mooney (Josh O'Connor), a carpenter who orchestrates an art heist targeting four Arthur Dove paintings from a fictional Massachusetts museum. The heist is inspired by a real 1972 robbery at the Worcester Art Museum, and the film explores the tension between artistic value and monetary worth against the backdrop of Vietnam War-era America.

Veronica Ryan: Unruly Objects

The Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Wexner Center for the Arts have co-organized an exhibition titled "Veronica Ryan: Unruly Objects," curated by Tamara H. Schenkenberg with curatorial assistant Molly Moog. At the Wexner Center, the presentation is further organized by Schenkenberg and Julieta González, head of Visual Arts. The exhibition is supported by a range of funders including ENGIE, the American Electric Power Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation, among others.